38 
Scientific Proceedings (41). 
fects the motor nerve endings more readily than the muscle tissue; 
in other words, calcium, like sodium, potassium, and magnesium 
exerts a curare-like action upon the motor nerve endings. However, 
there was one link missing in the evidence in favor of the con- 
clusion mentioned. The abolition of the indirect irritability might 
be due to the action of calcium upon the nerve trunk, and not 
upon the nerve ending. We have therefore studied the action of 
calcium chloride upon the nerve trunk in a short series of experi- 
ments. The results of this study form the subject of our present 
communication. 
In our former studies the calcium solution was administered 
to the muscle by intravascular perfusion. For our present study 
bathing of the nerve in the solution was the method which had 
to be employed. A very small cup made of a section of glass 
tubing was filled with this solution, into which a loop of the 
sciatic nerve was immersed and kept down by a small pledget of 
absorbent cotton saturated with the same solution. The brim of 
the cup was slightly covered with vaseline to prevent the over- 
flow of the solution. The section of the sciatic nerve between the 
cup and the gastrocnemius muscle was covered with a pledget 
of cotton saturated with Ringer , The same was the case with 
the lumbar plexus which was used for stimulation and kept on an 
appropriate electrode. The graphic registration of the contrac- 
tions of the gastrocnemius muscle were obtained in the usual 
manner. The drum was turned by hand at arbitrary intervals. 
The stimulations were accomplished by single induction shocks 
(break) which at the beginning of the test gave a maximal con- 
traction. Every few minutes the effect of a stimulation of the 
lumbar plexus was tested, comparing it sometimes with the effect 
of a similar stimulation of the part of the sciatic nerve peripheral 
to the cup. 
In every experiment both legs were used at the same time: 
one for testing the effect of an M/ 10 calcium chloride solution and 
the other to study the action of an ¥/io sodium chloride solution. 
Only the effect upon the conductivity was studied ; the loop was 
never taken out of the cup to test also the effect of the solutions 
upon the irritability. 
